March 15, 2025 – At Sea – Coast of Brazil – Mostly Sunny – 80s

It's an absolutely gorgeous day in the South Atlantic.  

I had breakfast out on the veranda - pancakes, eggs, coffee, and a beautiful view.

I went to hear the other speaker, Javier Corrales, talk at 10 AM – it was informative but too topical and academic for me. He is still working at Amherst College in MA (a small college not to be confused with U MA Amherst, which shares some of the grounds.

I got to my first talk a little early (around 2:30 PM for the 3 PM start) to make sure that all the tech worked and to meet a few guests to gauge their enthusiasm for the lectures.  I wound up speaking to a nice couple from Germany who had never heard of CSI and had to Google it.  They still came.  

The turnout was good for my first lecture “CSI Phenomenon: Forensics on Television” and much better than I expected – there was a short intro by Andy. 

A nice touch is the food and drinks they have in the back of the room for the attendees.  The other nice thing is the mic fits comfortably over one ear and is taped in place.  I don’t even know it’s there.  Headset mics on other ships tend to be too small or very uncomfortable. There was a problem with the slides – they were too small and green.  Stanislav could not fix the problem so he called in for backup – the new guys changed some settings and the slides looked OK.  The screen resolution is very good and I can read all the small stuff.  This ship does something I haven’t seen on other ships.  There are two singers and/or dancers at the doors to the theater.  Perhaps, they are there to greet people.  They stay for most of the talk. (Note the same process happens at Tea Time – an entertainer at each door).

As is often the case early on on a cruise, my throat was a little sore but I worked through that (hot tea and a cough drop). Also, the theater lights flashed at 45 minutes and I wondered if that was a time signal from the AV guys.  The talk ran just about 45 minutes.

We spent most of the afternoon up in the Observation Lounge - Deck 11 Forward.  The views are great and the seats are comfortable.

We had dinner tonight in the Compass Rose – Ellen has discovered Dover Sole (boned at the table)  - I had pasta pesto, which was also good but need a bit more sauce.  Table 115 looks to be our table and the service was again good.

Show tonight was singer Lisa-Marie Holmes, musical theater performer in the UK

 

– she was in “Jamie” (I had never heard of this production).  Her first number, “That’s Life”, 

was just not her kind of song but after that she hit her stride and sounded great.  Her mashup of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/ Somewhere" was spot on.

 

She has a formal singing background and she finished off with “Time to Say Goodbye” and did a great job with that (her Italian sounded pretty authentic).  

She has a nice banter between songs and she is easy to understand (even though she is a Brit).  It was an enjoyable show.  

Since it was again late, we headed to our suite.